To overcome what is generally perceived to be the major deficiency of flexible line trimmers, a great deal of effort has been directed in the past to methods of making replenishing broken cutting line more convenient for users without substantially complicating and increasing the cost of a line trimmer. A standard approach is to sell a supply of replacement line on a spool and have the user mount it in a line head that is coupled to the motor of the line trimmer. A line head typically includes a hub, coupled to the output shaft of a motor, and a housing or shroud extending outwardly from the hub and down around the spool to protect the spool from dirt and debris. The user places the spool on the hub, feeds a small length of line through an opening in the housing, and places a cover over the spool to retain and protect the spool within the line head. The spool is locked to the hub so that rapid spinning of the line head flails the line. When line breaks, the spool is unlocked and spun on the hub to unwind line through the opening.
Several methods have been used to lock and unlock the spool against the hub. Early line heads used a manual release mechanism. To replace line, the trimmer was stopped and turned upside down. The locking mechanism was released manually and the spool turned to unwind and feed line. To avoid having to stop and turn the trimmer upside to feed line, most current line heads have a "bump-feed" mechanism that indexes the spool through a predetermined angle of rotation each time it is bumped against the ground, thus allowing the user to feed a predetermined amount of line while the trimmer is running. There also exist line heads which automatically index the spool without any intervention of the user. Generally, these heads sense a change in the centrifugal force acting on a component of the spinning head or on the flailing line to release the spool for rotation and pay-out line when the line becomes short.
Though bump-feed and automatic line heads provide a great deal of convenience for the user, once a supply of flexible line on a spool is exhausted, the line trimmer must be turned on its side or upside down and held in an unwieldy position to replace the empty spool with another spool pre-wound with line and reattach the cover. Covers of line heads are often attached to the line head in a manner that demands such dexterity and strength to unfasten and remove that many users become frustrated by the task of replacing a spool.
One approach to make spool replacement easier is to locate the spool in the handle of the trimmer, near the user. Examples of these configurations are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,577 of Gise, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,128 of Schnell, et al. However, the line must then be fed through the handle shaft of the trimmer motor and then through line head, replacing one potentially frustrating task with another. U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,588 to Pittinger, Jr., on the other hand, retains the spool in the line head, but attempts to provide for an improved spool fastening mechanism that does not require removal of a cover. Instead, its fastening mechanism is released through a pin extending through the bottom of the spool. This pin-actuated release mechanism has, however, several disadvantages. It has several moving parts and is relatively complicated. It thus tends to be more expensive to manufacture and is more susceptible to sticking or interference from accumulation of dirt and debris around the pin and the fastening mechanism. The spool could thus be prematurely released during use or the pin become very difficult to push to release the spool.